Mining systems, and in particular mining systems designed for heavy or precious metals, generally include many large-scale systems and subsystems used to classify and process various sediment types, thereby extracting the heavy or previous metals from sediment. Such mining systems generally require use of a substantial amount of water with which sediments are separated from heavy or previous metals. This water is generally retrieved from a nearby water source, such as a lake or river. Once used in the heavy metal extraction process, the now sediment-filled water is stored in settlement pools near the mining operation, which allow the sediments discarded as part of the mining process to separate from the water. Once the sediments and water separate, the water can then be returned to the water source.
These existing mining systems have numerous drawbacks. First, such a system can be difficult to transport, particularly to a location which is not readily accessible by heavy machinery. Second, such a system generally requires a large environmental footprint. That is both because of the size of the equipment used as well as the size of the sediment pools required to allow for settlement of sediments out of the water. Furthermore, such systems require a large volume of water to perform the heavy metal extraction process. Third, permanent mining systems require significant initial capital investment.
The above disadvantages of existing mining systems lead them to be unsuitable for use in many locations. For example, in particularly arid conditions, there may be only a limited water source, which is otherwise incapable of providing sufficient water for mining operations. Furthermore, in part due to the environmental impact of existing mining operations, many states, such as Nevada, California, and Arizona, as well as other international jurisdictions, restrict mining operations in particular areas (or overall). For example, many states are trying to mitigate potential environmental damage done by large mining equipment and potential groundwater contamination from large sediment pools and the protection of fish habitats due to suspended particulate in streams and rivers, and to conserve water. Accordingly, areas exist which may have substantial or economic heavy or precious metal deposits, but are unavailable for mining purposes due to difficulty in transporting mining equipment, lack of a convenient water source, or environmental regulations restricting the footprint of a mining operation.
Such limitations exacerbate problems relating not only to areas in which it is difficult to transport large-scale processing or mining equipment or where environmental regulations exist, but also to mining situations in which an economic case for such large scale mining operations is unproven. It can be difficult to justify the substantial expense of installing such large-scale mining equipment when production levels from a particular mining site are unproven.
It is with respect to this general environment that the embodiments of the present application are directed.